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New Species Discovered Around the Globe
Photograph courtesy Kristofer Helgen
This giant woolly rat found in Papua New Guinea is just one of hundreds of species previously unknown to science that were brought to light in 2009 (more on the rat).
Discoveries such as these "reaffirm the magic of the planet," said Brendan Cummings, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, California.
Among the hundreds of new species are a subterranean snail that lives in Australia's outback, a ghostshark whose males have sex organs on their heads, and a tadpole-toting frog from Ecuador.
--John RoachPublished December 16, 2009
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Critical Habitat for Polar Bears Proposed
Photograph by Alaska Stock Images, National Geographic Stock
In October the U.S. government proposed designating more than 200,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) of land, sea, and ice along Alaska's north coast as critical habitat for the polar bear, which is listed as threatened with extinction under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
"That is a huge, positive affirmation that losing the polar bear is unacceptable," said the Center for Biological Diversity's Cummings. "If we are truly going to protect this habitat, we are going to have to deal with the climate crisis."Published December 16, 2009
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Massive Marine Monument Created
Photograph from AP
Undersea mud volcanoes, submerged islands, and waters teeming with sharks and other predators got a new lease on life when the Marianas Trench National Marine Monument was designated a federally protected area during the final days of U.S. President George W. Bush's time in office.
The Pacific sanctuary, broken up into three distinct regions, encompasses 95,216 square miles (246,608 square kilometers), making it the largest marine protected area in the world.Published December 16, 2009
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Walmart Going Green?
Photograph from AP
Walmart, the world's largest retailer by revenue, announced in July that it would require its hundred thousand suppliers to account for the environmental costs of their products. The mega-chain's new labeling program could "redefine the design and makeup of consumer goods sold around the globe," according to the Wall Street Journal.
"At Walmart, we're working to make sustainability sustainable, so that it's a priority in good times and in the tough times," said Mike Duke, Walmart's president and CEO, in a media statement. "An important part of that is developing the tools to help enable sustainable consumption."Published December 16, 2009
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Brazil Deforestation Rate Slows
Photograph from AP
About 2,700 square miles (7,000 square kilometers) of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared between August 2008 and July 2009, the government's environment minister announced in November--down from an average of two to three times as much in recent years.
The reduction was prodded by the United Nations' Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD, program. Developing countries receive financial incentives to keep forests intact. Since forests absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, the acts of conservation help keep emissions down.
"Many people worry it might not last, but it is certainly the most tangible large environmental change that we've seen in a very, very long time," said Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Duke University.
(Read more about REDD and the Copenhagen Climate Negotiations.)Published December 16, 2009
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Solar Cells Printed Like Money
Photograph courtesy Tracey Nicholls/CSIRO
The prospects for mass production of solar cells brightened this February when the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization started up a machine that stamps flexible solar panels on plastic film.
Project leader Gerry Wilson said the breakthrough would make vast sheets or rolls of the cells available for building windows and rooftops. An expert unaffiliated with the project told National Geographic News the cells could bring down energy costs.Published December 16, 2009
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Beer Maker Calculates Water Footprint
Photograph from AP
International brewing giant SAB Miller unveiled plans at a water conference in August to account for how much water the company uses to process beer, including growing hops and bottling their brews. The company said it will use the results to identify how water scarcity will affect its beer production and devise new ways to use water more efficiently.
The results from the SAB Miller analysis will be used by the Waterfootprint Network, based at the University of Twente, Netherlands, to standardize the way water footprints are calculated.
Such projects are seeping into corporate culture around the world and are "just about to bust out in a way that we just didn't see ten years ago," noted Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project in Los Lunas, New Mexico.Published December 16, 2009
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Google Earth Gets an Ocean
Photograph from AP
As of February, Google Earth users tired of looking at their houses from space can now download an ocean layer, which brings the underwater world to the popular 3-D mapping tool.
"This is another major breakthrough in showing the people of the world why the ocean matters," marine biologist Sylvia Earle told National Geographic News when the tool launched. Above, Earle, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, narrates an introductory video to the tool.Published December 16, 2009
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Initiative to Protect Corals Launched
Photograph from AP
Six Asian nations—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and East Timor—launched an initiative in May to address overfishing, unsustainable coastal development, and climate change, all of which are threats to the countries' shared coral reef resources.
"Many people of the region are dependent upon that marine environment being healthy and producing food that they need to eat," said WWF Vice President Eichbaum.
According to WWF, marine resources in the region sustain more than 120 million peoplePublished December 16, 2009
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Salmon Return to Paris
Photograph by Gordon Gahan, National Geographic Stock
Some salmon this summer bypassed Parisian bistros and successfully navigated the Seine, the iconic river that divides the city in half, shown above in a file photo.
The species had disappeared from the river by 1900 and most others followed suit in the following decades due to polluted water. By 1995 only five hardy species such as carp and eel called Paris home.
Now the efforts of a cleanup project are beginning to pay off. More than a thousand salmon migrated through the City of Lights this year, exceeding "anything we could imagine," Bernard Breton, secretary general of France's National Federation of Fishing, told National Geographic News via email.Published December 16, 2009
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